Just an Ohioan getting my Ohio on.

September 30, 2013

Potential Juggernaut: The Future of Columbus Comics

I don’t know much about comics, but I enjoy reading them and am inspired by the local creators who work hard to build a strong scene. When I heard
there was a panel called “A Voltron That Has Yet to Assemble: The Columbus
Comics Scene Past, Present, and Future” at CCAD’s Mix comics symposium, I had
to attend.

Spurgeon, the lone panelist not living in Ohio, offered a refreshing perspective.

“Columbus has all of the earmarks of a classic emerging
comics scene,” he said. “It was always this terrifying weird city that people
talked about but no one knew about, sort of like the South Carolina of cities.”

He referenced our nationally known comic shops and matter-of-fact cosmopolitanism (Ha! He knows us.) Thanks to our large volume of students and institutional support, he thinks Columbus is a “potential
juggernaut” in the comics world.

“The Midwest has real audiences of arts enthusiasts,” he said. “And it’s actually kind of a nice place to live.”

Spurgeon established himself in Seattle,
where he encountered “a mix of angry old people and angry young people.” He name-dropped a
bunch of people he worked with that I’d never heard of. And Gary Larson1.

“Do Columbus comics feel a close connection with one
another?” Spurgeon asked. Moore responded that most of them feel a real sense of community. They frequently hang out and share meals together.

“One thing that we all have in common is music as a topic,”
Moore said. “A lot of local comics are about musicians.”

Eppstein, who actually molded his business plan after those
of local indie bands, aims to publish a monthly cartoon newspaper.

“Columbus is one of the best cross-sections of American
culture,” he said. “If you can come here and build an audience, that
audience will follow you to other cities.”

When the OSU Cartoon Museum reopens in November, Robb hopes to better serve local comic creators. She’d
also like to start a graphic novel book club. In her eyes, when it comes to the future of Columbus comics, “the sky is the limit.”

1 Okay. I vowed not to be That Girl who ran up to him
afterward, babbling about how I wrote my college entrance essay about Larson and that two huge compendiums of Larson’s work live in my kitchen. But I thought about it.